Matcha Latte

3 Am I Being Rude?

KAAAAAAHHH!!

*blush

Standing in front of me...was a beauty.

Light brown eyes that are filled with gentleness and warmth framed by long eyelashes. A cute nose and naturally rosy lips, pale white skin as smooth as that of a baby's and long, wavy light brown hair, worthy of a shampoo commercial, hugging her beautiful face devoid of make-up. Wearing a turtle neck blouse underneath her denim jacket, tight-fitting jeans that compliment her curves and comfy rubber shoes, a backpack on her back, and a laptop and notebook on her arms; she exhibited the aura of a normal college student even though she's the daughter of the CEO of one of the most successful entertainment companies in the country.

*Jiiiiiiii~

I stared blankly at her with my mouth slightly hanging open. Under my blatant stare, her face reddened a bit in embarrassment. As I saw the pink blush creep up her pale face, I realized what I'd been doing and immediately lowered my head and stared at the floor with my face turning hot from embarrassment.

What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? I just embarrassed myself in front of a school idol and in front of a lot of people  as well! I'm sure she thinks I'm totally weird right now? Haaaaaa~ I want to get out of here but I can't. If I walk out of here, ignoring Lily after she talked to me, I'd be dead by evening. Her legions of fans won't forgive me for being rude to their beloved Lily. Actually, no. I think my conscience will be the one torturing me to death because I was rude to someone, especially a beautiful lady with high standing in society—

... Wait. I'm actually being rude to her right now, aren't I? The cogwheels in my head that have scattered in my brain because of the self-destruct sequence exploded in my head struggled to reassemble and realign themselves to allow me to think rationally in order to escape this life-threatening scenario.

-She just introduced herself to me, a total nobody. According to societal rules of old, it's supposed to be the lower-ranked person who introduces themselves to the higher-ranked person. She's...she's a goddess, a divine being, a totally high-ranked individual that has appeared before the likes of me: an unworthy, lower-ranked, commoner weirdo. Yep, rude.

-I just stared at her like an idiot. Totally rude. Don't blatantly stare at someone! If you wanna stare at someone, do it secretly, covertly, to avoid social persecution and being branded as a pervert or a weirdo. Mhmm *nods sagely.

-I completely ignored her introduction. Uh-huh, rude. No additional comments. Nuff said.

-I deliberately averted my eyes as soon as she finished talking to me. No, more like, my entire body language screamed GET AWAY FROM ME! Yeah, you don't do that unless you deliberately don't like the person, right? Yeah, ok, it's rude. Yep.

-I didn't respond to her at all and kept on staring at my laptop on the table. Do I need to repeat that I've been rude to her for the past few minutes?

Looking up, I saw Lily smiling at me kindly, politely waiting for me to respond to her. Cautiously looking around, I saw the café patrons looking at our table enviously because she talked to me while some were staring daggers at me for ignoring their idol. Aaahhhh! My eyes are swimming from this pincer attack. Ah! Steam just came out of my ears because my brain just overheated from all the overthinking.

⸢fufu~⸣

I heard a gentle chuckle above me and I saw Lily covering her mouth in a lady-like manner as she stared at me with gentle eyes—huh? Is that a bit of mischief I'm detecting? Cute. A smile hovered on her lips as she lowered her hand.

Uwah~ a beauty just smiled at me! Faced with the impact of her smiling face, I blushed once again and lowered my eyes in embarrassment, avoiding eye contact and making sure she doesn't see my reddened face.

⸢I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh. Uhm, Am I troubling you? ⸣

Mistaking my actions as a negative reaction to her chuckling, Lily apologized to me with a concerned look, a cute little wrinkle appearing between her eyebrows that were shaped to perfection. No, I wasn't reacting to your chuckling. I'm reacting to your smile (Though your chuckling was cute too)! Who told you to have such a heart-piercing smile!?  Ugh, I felt like my heart was pierced by the Spear of Destiny. Is this how Cupid shoots an arrow through your heart? Yeah,I don't think any Cupid's arrow can beat this. I think my image of Cupid has evolved from a cute cherub into a muscular centurion.

Hearing her apologize instinctively made me look around the room as I felt a dozen stares pierce my back. As expected, the people watching our interaction were looking at me with murderous intent as if saying: "How dare you!? Who do you think you are!? To think our goddess would bow her head to YOU!?"

HIIIIIIIIII!!!

Ok. Evasive maneuvers! Evasive maneuvers!

⸢Uhm, no, I'm sorry for my late response. I'm Shane. It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Lily. Please, have a seat.⸣

Taking a deep breath to steady myself and ignoring the onlookers, I stood up and introduced myself formally. Gesturing to the seat across from me, I motioned for her to take a seat.

⸢Thank you⸣

She smiled and took the seat I offered, carefully placing her laptop and notebook on the table and hanging her backpack at the back of her chair.